Need help with phono cartridge selection


Hello all,

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am finally getting around to upgrading my phono cartridge and looking for some advice. I mostly listen to rock and jazz using the following setup:

Receiver - denon AVR 4306
Speakers - Polk audio 
Record player - Pioneer PL-630 with medium mass arm.

With all the reading I have done I am in information overload and not sure which direction to go. Current budget is roughly 500 or less. 

Current cartridge considerations:
Denon dl-110
Ortofon om20
Ortofon 2m Bronze
Nagaoka mp-200 or the 150
AT ML540ML
AT VM95E or ML
Hana EH
I am open to other suggestions as well 

Again, I am new at this so I appreciate your patience and your help. 

Theo.

theo71

Of the cartridges you selected I think the VM540ML and the 2M Bronze are best. If you can push a little harder the Goldring 1042 is a dynamite cartridge. It has a Gyger S stylus on a boron cantilever punching way above it's price point. It is the equivalent of the 2M Black LVB at a little over 1/2 the price. 

I had a Nag 150 for years which I loved and with all the hype about the 200 I finally pulled the trigger since it was supposed to give me more of what I loved about the 150. However while the 200 was more detailed, it was too thin and lacked bass and mid range presence. I'm pretty upset about the purchase honestly. I think the 150 has the best overall balance and for some reason the dynamics are better, too. A real head scratcher, but I guess I learned something.  150 all day long and twice on Sundays!

You might consider a phono amplifier instead of the receiver's input. Try a Schiit Mani 2 into an aux input.